Aging and economic growth: issues relevant to Singapore

The paper studies the effects of the changing age and education composition of the labour force on productivity growth in Singapore. The quality change of workers from aging and education is measured through a quality index. Quality change through education is the key driving force for the productive performance of the labour force. On the other hand, the growth in the labour quality of workers by age, and hence, its contribution to labour productivity growth is falling. To moderate the impact of the aging labour force on productivity growth, greater efforts to raise the educational profile of the labour force and to re-train older workers are required.